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A pre-modern Belgian style that was made in farmhouse breweries during spring. Saisons are brewed hoppy and fairly strong in order to keep through the summer, but these beers are fantastic all year long. A terrifically complex beer arising from the interaction of simple ingredients. Hops give a bracing bitterness and floral overtones, with striking spicy, peppery and earthy tartness from unique yeast. Serve in a wide-mouthed glass at cellar temperature to appreciate this beer's full range of aromas and flavors.

Everything was awesome, polite and knowledgeable salespeople and the delivery was good. HOWEVER .. the price is TOO HIGH. The price of the kit is fine, but when you add the price of yeast, priming sugar, caps and delivery to the cost f the kit .. I believe it makes you uncompetitive. They should all be included in the kit. This is why I keep my orders to you at a minimum. I purchas the majority of my things locally here in Grand Rapids Michigan. Other than that, Northern Brewery is my next favorite place to shop

OK, this was worth the experiment. I brewed this for the most part according to the directions with one exception. I used half the hop addition in the boil and dry hopped the rest in the secondary for two weeks. I keged it up and was pleasantly surprised....This beer rocks. Definitely a nice, crisp refreshing beer.

I bought this as a base kit for a Saison w/Brett. It turned out fantastic. I used the French Saison Yeast and Brett C. I did not use a starter for either, but pitched at the same time. Was able to ferment in the 80's as it was summer and put it in the hot garage. Let it sit in the fermenter for 4 weeks and then transferred to keg. Tapped at 7 weeks, very tasty, funky Saison, one of my favorites to date.

My love for Saisons is the reason I got into brewing beer this year. Saison Dupont, St. Feuillien Saison, Yards Saison, Hennepin, and Brooklyn Sorachi Ace are some of my favorites.But, this beer is possibly the best Saison I've ever tasted. I'm seriously impressed.I used one very fresh Wyeast 3724 smack pack, purchased from my local homebrew shop. There was no need for a starter in my case. Fermentation started quickly and agressively. I needed the blowoff hose on my 6 gallon carboy within the first 12 hours.If you read about this yeast strain on the Wyeast website; on any of the homebrew forums; or, in Phil Markowski's book called "Farmhouse Ales", you'll learn that it needs to be fermented at high temperatures.If you don't ferment in the mid eighties or higher, the fermentation is likely to slow or stall at a gravity of about 1.03.Based on my reading, I used a fermwrap and was easily able to ferment in the high eighties, and about 90 from about midway through the process. Adjustments were possible by adding some insulation.I used a temperature strip that goes up to 93 to ensure that it didn't get too hot. No worries if the strip isn't completely accurate. Wyeast reports an ideal range up to 95. And, Markowski suggests that even higher temps are likely okay.The high temperatures help to produce a wonderful Saison funk taste and a bold fruitiness, a bit like prune. There's also a mild spice taste that hits the back of the mouth. It's really a pleasure to smell and to drink if you're a lover of Saisons.Like any great Saison, this beer is balanced out nicely with a dry finish.I racked to secondary after about three weeks and bottled almost 5 weeks later.OG: 1.052 (May 3)Racked to Secondary: 1.020 (May 23)FG: 1.007 (June 28)ABV: 5.91%

This brew is on my list for re-order. Does not disappoint, and I'm pretty sure I did everything I could to mess it up. Ran out of propane on the boil, had to let it cool overnight because it was too cold to use the wort chiller outside, fermented it in a 5 gallon instead of 6, etc... You get the point. My wife and I love this beer and would certainly recommend it to anyone interested in a quality saison.

This beer ferments fast and clean and is ready to drink almost immediately! The only thing I regret is not doing more with temperature control. My fermenting temps were somewhere in the middle, so I got a slightly fruity output from the yeast, but I'd rather have fermented cooler and gotten something dry and clean - or hotter and gotten something a little bit more funky. Either way, love it!

Just opened mine about a month after bottling. I used White Labs saison yeast. The beer is great. My only gripe is that I didn't really push the fermentation temperature. I previously made a saison with Wyease Belgian Saison and kept it around 78-79 degrees and it really had that peppery and dry saison kick. This is obviously on my end and not Northern Brewer. Overall, the beer is quite good. Will buy again. Next time I will use the Wyeast Belgian strain and push the upper limits of the temperature to get some funky Belgian goodness.

Brewed this back in early March and let it sit in the secondary for about 2 1/2 months, then bottled and left it alone for another two weeks. Cracked my first one open a couple of days ago and it's incredible. A perfectly balanced Saison with beautiful color, great aroma, and just a flat out delicious flavor that is true to the style.Don't hesitate to purchase this one!

Its sitting in the bottles now waiting to condition for a week or longer - but my initial tastes of the brew left me with a very favorable opinion of this kit. I think its going to be even more phenomenal once it sits a little longer.

I entered this in the Carolina Brewmaster US Open. I finished 2nd with a score of 36 points!! That is exceptional for an extract kit. The judges' comments were extremely complimentary.Like I said before, if you do not like this beer, you do not like Saisons....

This was another great recipe from Northern Brewer. I'm brewing it as a wedding favor this November when I get married. We did a test batch this spring for the Engagement party and it was a hit. I did add a pound of local honey and dry hopped it with rosemary to make it our Honeymoon Wedding Saison.

2nd go around with this kit and it is just as good as the 1st. I used 3725 (Farmhouse) as the yeast and it has a nice peppery tingle on the tongue. Multiple people at the brew club meeting last week said I should enter it in the US Open next month. I skipped the secondary and went straight to bottle after 2 weeks. It turns out just as good, but I think it needs to age longer if you skip it. If you don't like this beer, you don't like Saisons.

Striking similarities between this kit and Saison Dupont. My alkaline tap water introduced a slight astringency but otherwise this was absolutely delicious. Very true to the style. I just ordered the ingredients for this one again, only I'll be substituting some Sorachi Ace hops on the back end of the boil at 10-15 minutes. Give it a bit more aroma and lemony taste.

Brewed this a couple of times so far; last batch included 1/2# of honey and the 3722 Wyeast (which I'm moving towards as a "house" yeast). After just 2 weeks primary and 10 days in bottle, the beer was really good - grassy, light in body, dry finish...but two weeks longer makes this one stunning.

Update: After 5 weeks in the bottle I was able to get my hands on a bottle of Saison Dupont and decided to do a side-by-side comparison to see how true to the style this was. Man was I shocked to find how similar it was to the Dupont in taste and smell. Mine was darker in color but I'm sure that was due to using Golden Extract and being 6-8 months old. There were some very minor differences in taste and smell but if someone is looking for a Dupont clone I don't think you will be disappointed with this kit using Wyeast 3724. Just ferment at 90F from the start and give it time. I can't speak for what this beer is like with other yeast. From what I read, the 3724 IS the yeast Dupont uses so I guess it makes sense how similar this is. Thanks NB for another fantastic brew.

I decided to brew this with the Wyeast 3724 and after 3 weeks in the bottles it tastes great. It's still quite young but it's much better at 3wks than at 2wks. I am happy with the way it is now and if it keeps getting better it will be too good to drink. Ok, not really, but if you like the Saison style you will love this beer. The 3724 yeast is very particular and you have to be patient with it but it does produce some wonderful flavors. Read my review for the 3724 yeast for details.

Absolutely fantastic! I'm new to Saisons, but this stuff is fantastic! It reminds me of a German wheat, but less bananna and cloves and a little more funky spice. But the overall mouthfeel is very similar. I only kept it 2 weeks in the secondary and I opened a bottle 12 days after bottling, but holy cow this stuff is just phenomenal! My best brew this year. Absolutely will make this again, probably in a month or two.

I brewed this kit a few months ago and it turned out to be the best batch I've ever done. As always, I can't brew a recipe according to plan and always tinker with the ingredients. With this particular batch, we doubled the amount of hops, added (1) pound of Carapils, added (1 lb) of Light Candy Sugar, used the Brewvint Alcohol Boost, and used the Wyeast 3711 French Saihe son Yeast instead of the Belgian Ardennes 3522., the result was "WOW"! We started drinking this one a few days prior to the two week bottle fermentation suggestion and already it's drinking incredibly well, in fact so well, I'm not sure the two cases that were brewed will last very long - I'm already planning to brew a second batch and may even double it because the feedback from family and friends has been extremely positive. Based on the results, I'll definitely go with the Frences Saison yeast again. I also used Irish Moss in the last 15 minutes of the boil to help clarify things. And finally, the OG was 1.071 and the FG was 1.000 clocking this batch in at 9.3% which is pretty much off the scale for a Saison. I brewed this beer based on my own preferences and in my own opinion, it worked, and worked very well.

After taking a break from brewing for about 20 years, I decided this would be my first. Homebrewing has sure come a long way in all that time. The Saison yeast was amazing-spot on. This is definitely a "patient" beer, requiring lots of aging. After a month in secondary, then 2 weeks in bottles, it still feels like it needs some time. It will probably be great in a month or so and amazing after 6 months if it lasts that long...I brewed a quicky Innkeeper to tied me over until it is ready.I probably would add a little aroma hop (or dry hop) if I were to make this again. Definitely complex as others have reviewed.

Altered this extract kit by adding 1/2# Special B, 1/2# table sugar at flame out and Trappist High G yeast. Turned out strangely wonderful! Lots of spice and floral characters. Color and some flavors are spot on with Gulden Draak ale (one of my faves). Next time I will try Ardennes yeast and little-to-no altering of the NB recipe.

I've brewed this beer several times, adding 1# Belgian Aromatic, 1# Belgian Pils, 2 oz aged Saaz whole hops (150f oven for ~3 hours) and Brett in 10-14 week secondary.Tastes excellent, a great, light Ommegeddon clone ready in just about 3 months!and above review was dead-on about the Wyeast Belgian Saison yeast, a better match for my tastes.also, holding the grains at 125f for 1/2 hour, then 155f for 1/2 hour seems to help the Brett, if you have the time & patience.

I brewed this for my wedding last summer and it came out great. I used the Belgian Saison yeast instead of Ardennes, and fermented this (covered) in my sun room at 85-90F. Turned out dry and complex. It was a big hit.I don't buy a lot of kits, but I'll probably get this again this summer rather than make my own saison recipe. And I'll definitely use the saison yeast again.

We meant to pick up the Patersbier, but ended up with the Saison in error. This was our first two stage brew and it turned out great. Complex is definitely the way I would describe this beer. Through the brew, I was skeptical that it was going to turn out okay, but it really changed and mellowed after about 8 weeks. Great color and I can't emphasize how complex this seems to be. I think this is the first brew we used Minneapolis city water instead of distilled and it turned out great.

I made this kit and found it was a great beer, but I liked the Patersbier extract kit better. They are similar styles, and it might just be personal preference, but I enjoyed the flavor profile of hte Paters better than this one. This would be a great first Belgian beer to try though!

I am in the process of brewing this kit. OG on January 2 (brew day) was 1.054 (pitched with a yeast starter that was 24+ hours activated). Fermentation started quickly and was quite active. Fermentation slowed down after a couple of days (airlock bubbling every 20 to 30 secs). The gravity reading I just took (after 13 days) is 1.030 (a stable reading for past two days). That gravity seems high to me - but I also recognize there is an expected, lengthy secondary still to occur.

BEST ANSWER:Hi there. I have my brew in secondary now and had a similar experience with the yeast stalling out. I did some reading and saw that this strain prefers warmer temperatures, since I can't keep the heater blazing all day I have put it periodically in a warm bath in the kitchen sink till it gets to about 80 degrees and it starts bubbling again like mad. In my reading it seems you either have to give it a lot of time or warm it up to get to your ideal gravity. Hope that helps!

BEST ANSWER:Hi there. I have my brew in secondary now and had a similar experience with the yeast stalling out. I did some reading and saw that this strain prefers warmer temperatures, since I can't keep the heater blazing all day I have put it periodically in a warm bath in the kitchen sink till it gets to about 80 degrees and it starts bubbling again like mad. In my reading it seems you either have to give it a lot of time or warm it up to get to your ideal gravity. Hope that helps!

Hi Rich, thanks for the inquiry. Well, that would be a stuck ferment, unless you took that reading with a refractometer. That looks like a refractometer reading and if it was, correct the reading and it would indicate it is done! Cheers!

Both the All Grain Saison and the Extract kit instructions from NB say that the optimal fermentation temperature range is between 70F and 85F. However, if you look on the back of the WYeast 3724 smack pack, it says the optimal fermentation temp range is between 65F and 72F. That's quite a disparity. Who's right, and why?

BEST ANSWER:Great question. Those temperatures on the packet are the optimum pitching temperature - not the optimum fermenting temperature. You would ramp the temp or down from that general target once fermentation begins. The packs never say the optimum temp for fermentation on the packet, refer to this or Wyeast's website to check optimum temps. The correct temp for this yeast is between 70 and 95 degrees - but we do not recommend going over 85 for best flavor. Cheers!

BEST ANSWER:Great question. Those temperatures on the packet are the optimum pitching temperature - not the optimum fermenting temperature. You would ramp the temp or down from that general target once fermentation begins. The packs never say the optimum temp for fermentation on the packet, refer to this or Wyeast's website to check optimum temps. The correct temp for this yeast is between 70 and 95 degrees - but we do not recommend going over 85 for best flavor. Cheers!

I'm pulling a Saison au Miel 1 gallon batch out of the fermenter this weekend and curious if I can pour a 5 gallon batch of this Saison on the yeast cake. The au Miel fermented on a half pack of Danstar Belle Saison. My thought is the cell count is high enough after the 1 gallon batch so correct me if I am wrong. Also curious if the Danstar Belle Saison is a good match for this brew. I've been reading up on re-pitching on a yeast cake and see an opportunity to give it a try. Am I trying too hard to create an opportunity? Thanks in advance for any comments.

BEST ANSWER:Worth a try. I would wash and make a starter myself - but you may be able to just add onto the yeast cake. Though I never recommend that myself. Yeast is cheap and can make the whole difference between bad, good and great beer that why risk it? Should work for a low gravity saison though. Cheers!

BEST ANSWER:Worth a try. I would wash and make a starter myself - but you may be able to just add onto the yeast cake. Though I never recommend that myself. Yeast is cheap and can make the whole difference between bad, good and great beer that why risk it? Should work for a low gravity saison though. Cheers!